Read to know what to do if there is a USB drive format error: how to format it again and recover the lost data.
To continue the topic of repairing USB flash drives that we brought up in the article “How to Repair a Flash Drive,” let us consider one more case involving a failure in the work of this data carrier.

Nowadays every PC user has a USB flash drive. Sometimes they need to be formatted, for example, when changing the file system, when encountering errors or just when you need to delete all files.

Usually, this operation is quick to perform, but sometimes you can see an error message saying: “Windows was unable to complete the format.”

Let us have a look at several ways to perform formatting and repair the flash drive.

Formatting With Windows Disk Management

Often you can format a flash drive without turning to third-party utilities but by using Windows disk manager.

To launch it go to Windows Control Panel, then switch to “Administrative Tools” and click on “Computer Management”.

Then go to Disk Management tab. In the list of all drives available you should see the flash drive (which you have trouble formatting). Right-click you mouse on the drive and select the menu line “Format.”

Formatting With Command Prompt

In this case you should launch the command prompt with administrator rights.

Then enter a simple command: “format f:” (type in without quotation marks where “f:” is the drive letter).

Low-level formatting

An inscription on the flash drive case always specifies manufacturer name, memory size and sometimes the speed: USB 2.0 (3.0). In addition, every flash drive has its own specific controller and knowing about it, you can try to perform low-level formatting.

To determine the controller model, there are two parameters: VID and PID (vendor ID and Product ID, respectively). When you know VID and PID you can find a utility to repair and format your flash drive. Yet you should be careful: flash drives by one manufacturer and in one model range can still have different controllers!

After that, just search for a flash drive format utility (a sample query: “silicon power VID 13FE PID 3600”) using Yandex or Google. As you find the utility you need, launch it to format the flash drive (if you did everything right, there shouldn’t be any problems).

Yet before you start low-level formatting you should understand it means erasing all user information without a chance to restore it. That is, the part of the drive where data is contained will be cleaned completely. Standard Windows formatting does not do that but only applies quick formatting which is basically remarking your drive.

It is quite a common variant which can help you to repair flash drives by almost any manufacturer.

2016-04-22Author: Michael Miroshnichenko

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Related Post

Restoring a PST File With Outlook 2016 ToolsIn this article, we will focus on the main causes of why .pst personal folder files get damaged and will show you a simple way to restore them.
Microsoft Outlook, an absolute leader in the segment of corporate email clients for desktops, stores us...

How to Recover Data From File History in WindowsNow we continue telling you about new interesting functions of OS Windows 10. Today we will describe in detail the function File History in Windows 10. As you might have guessed from its name, File History is a user data backup and restore system in ...

Repairing Windows Boot Loader (BCD)In this article we will find out how to repair Windows 10 boot loader on a computer operating in UEFI mode. Damage to Windows 10 boot loader may result from installation of another OS ОС (in Dual Boot configurations), incorrect actions of an “expert”...

How to Restore Files From a Windows ImageWindows offers a fail-safe way to recover an entire hard disk from a system image, and we’ll find out how you can use it for recovering specific files.
Windows 10 OS provides ample opportunities for data backup which include tracking file history...

How to Create an Image With a Backup Copy of Windows 10In this article, we will see how to create a backup copy of Windows 10 system image in a separate external disk. A system image is a complete copy of the computer data (it includes absolutely everything from Windows system files to user-installed app...